A light absorption device absorbs light emitted from a light source, and may be used as a heating device converting the energy of absorbed light into heat. For example, a light absorption device may be used in a fixing unit of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus charges photosensitive drums substantially uniformly, and exposes so charged photosensitive drums with light, e.g., using a laser scanning unit (LSU), to thereby form an electrostatic latent image in correspondence to the image to be formed. The electrostatic latent image is developed with developer, e.g., charged toner, into a visible toner image, which is then transferred onto a recording medium. At this point, the toner image transferred onto the recording medium is not yet permanently fixed, but is merely being carried on the recording medium. A fixing unit may be utilized to thermally fuse or otherwise fix the toner image on the recording medium by the application of heat and pressure to thereby complete the formation of the image on the recording medium. For example, when a roller-type fixing unit is used, the recording medium carrying the toner image is passed through a nip formed between a heating roller and a pressurizing roller that are in a pressing contact each other, and is allowed to be heated by the heating roller and at the same time to be pressed by the heating roller and the pressurizing roller. The heating roller is an example of a light absorption device, and may be of the form of a cylindrical metal roller that is heated by a heat source, such as, for example, a halogen lamp.